7/16/2010 @ 12:50PM

Apple: No Problem With Earnings

Put down your pitchforks. Extinguish your torches. Yes,
Apple
is getting a lot of hard questions about its new iPhone.

On Tuesday afternoon, however,
Apple
should report quarterly results that will draw cheers rather than jeers.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect Apple to report net income of $2.8 billion, or $3.10 per share for the quarter ending in June, up from $1.8 billion, or $2.01 per share, during the year-ago quarter.

Sales are expected to rise as well, to $14.7 billion from $9.7 billion.

Its new iPhone, despite questions raised about its antenna by outlets such as Consumer Reports, is selling well (and, by the way, it remains the consumer magazine’s top rated smartphone). In a note to investors Wednesday,
Deutsche Bank
North America analyst Chris Whitmore wrote that he expects Apple will sell 8.5 million iPhones in the quarter, during which it hustled out a new handset.

Apple’s iPad tablet computer has been a hit. Whitmore expects Apple will sell more than 3 million of them, ending questions about whether Apple could blunt the threat posed by cheap “netbook” computers.

Oh, and Apple’s line of Macintosh personal computers, the business Apple was built around, is thriving. Whitmore expects Apple will sell 3.2 million Macs, thanks to notebooks with updated specifications.

In short, while Apple has suffered some embarrassment over the new iPhone 4 for now, at least, its underlying business remains strong.